Learn FreeCAD: Beginners Sketcher Tutorial: Tips and Solving Problems in the Sketch Workbench

The sketcher is a powerful tool in FreeCAD but it can be a bit of a learning curve for beginners. In this tutorial I put together a number of tips and tricks for beginners to make life easier when creating a sketch. The sketcher WB is the start to your 3D models whether your application is for 3D Printing or modelling. We first learn about the panes and how to use them, full, partial and over constrained sketches, problems when constraining and how to solve them, how to fix a broken sketch, finding open edges that cause extrudes and pads to fail, construction geometry, naming and referencing over constraints, importing geometry from other sketches and some of the best practices when sketching. This does not cover everything as the sketcher is vast. We don't go into the individual constraints but we do understand how they work and how they can fix and brake your models.
This tutorial is not just for beginners, no mater your ability I hope you will find something useful in this training video to help you master the Sketcher Workbench.
#FreeCAD , #CAD #3DPrinting
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[@thepragmatic6383]

Thank you very much. I wish to become a good Padawan. Before attempting to do complicated things, it helps to know the basics.

[@qiqqaqwerty1713]

Thank you very much for this video, I have learn about constraints and fixed some of my fundamentals in FreeCAD! Great video, great explanations, really appreciate your style of teaching by repeation of the same basic idea over and over again in slightly different ways! Cheers from "Down Under" mate!

[@MangoJellySolutions]

Glad it was helpful! Great to get the feedback. So happy that people like yourself are finding these video's useful. My Dad used to live in Oz, beautiful country!!

[@qiqqaqwerty1713]

@@MangoJellySolutions Yeah i s really a nice place! Very calm in normal times, however in the last two years things became a little bit hectic , as any other place in the world... Again, thanks very much mate! Keep the good fight!

[@vinnierolla]

Great video. Learned a lot 👍

[@martinxp2535]

Grazie.

[@Quest_UK]

WOW i learnt so much from your video , thank you and I will apply it to any new designs I make.

[@MangoJellySolutions]

That's great to here thank you.

[@martinxp2535]

Hi Mango JellyThanks for your time and effort to help others! least I could do was offer a coffeeeeee

[@MangoJellySolutions]

Thank you so much, really appreciated. Glad your enjoying the videos.

[@brianprice7020]

thank you

[@johnston4417]

Does anyone know why once I make my square symmetrical to the point (0,0)? I can not add a slot to my square and make the slot symmetrical on the x-axis.

[@GlennHoweTeam]

Thanks for the video. Question: I notice that when you are doing the square constrain at time 14:20, you select the two opposite points of the square and then the center point of the grid. When I do that, I cannot seem to get the center point selected. What am I doing wrong?

[@MangoJellySolutions]

It sounds like you are sketching on the reverse of the sketch. If your rotate your view to around the other side then if you find its easy to select then your on the wrong side. By any chance are you using a datum plane? If so then click on your sketch in the tree view and go to the data tab. You will see a property called Reversed. Set this to true.

[@path6217]

Can you direct me to a video you may have, my problem I can build the piece thanks to you, but when I move to technical drawing it fills in all the material I have removed via pockets, hope you can help.

[@MangoJellySolutions]

Hi, this is probably due to the item you have selected in the treeview before you inserted the view. Make sure you have either selected the last action (the tip) or the body. It sounds like you have selected the feature before the pocket action.

[@Rubensgardens.Skogsmuseum]

This is so frustrating. I have spent all day trying to make a simple sketch but it is still just a bunch of individual lines. The coincident constrain won't join the lines. I would have done the sketch in 5 minutes in Draftsight but I don't like their 3D features. Maybe in a couple months I will have made a sphere or some basic geometries. Fushion 360 also sucks when it comes to scetching. Thank you for the tutorials, but my software is simply not doing what yours is and it is like that all the time.

[@jnarical]

There's an obscure configuration option - on "constraints" panel, there's small config button with drop-down list. Top option is "Automatic constraints", that's all you need.

[@tenlittleindians]

Is Mango jelly anything like Mango pickle?

[@MangoJellySolutions]

😁👍 No totally different, one's made by bees and the others made by wasps.

[@hunterjones9773]

Great vids! I can actually absorb the info you are imparting because of the way you do it! I'm an absolute never done any CAD type work before and after watching a plethora of vids yours as already said are the one that conveys the information in a way that I can absorb! A major issue that I have is that as a result of me doing something to my settings (no idea what!) my Tree view and Property view panes are no longer on the left hand side directly under nav/menu bars and the Tasks pane is full width above them - I've trawled the setting trying to work it out, reset back to standard, deinstalled and reinstalled the version 19 and tried searching the forum for a solution so reaching out to someone that may be able to help with the solution.

[@MangoJellySolutions]

Thank you for the comment, great to hear your liking the videos and thanks for the feedback. So if you go to the properties there should be a button that says reset at the bottom left. The panels are a bit tricky, you have to drag the panel from where it title is, so you should be able to drag to the far left and wait for it to dock and let go. If you lose a panel like the combo view it's actual go to view, panels and select from there.